Hacienda Santa Gertrudis - ECUADOR

60g WHOLE BEAN

This beautiful Sidra was produced by the remarkable Jose Eguiguren of Hacienda Santa Gertrudis in Vilcabamba, Ecuador. This coffee was harvested when the cherries were perfectly ripe. They are then hand selected and floated to remove defects. The coffee is fermented on cherry for 48 hours in plastic tanks and then sundried for 30 days on raised beds. We have been great admirers of Jose and his work at Santa Gertrudis for a few years now. When our pals at Forward Coffee landed this lot we knew we had to have it. This coffee was sourced, roasted and sensory profiled as an exclusive SCA Expo 2024 release.

PRODUCER: Jose Eguiguren

FARM: Hacienda Santa Gertrudis

ORIGIN: Vilcabamba, Ecuador

VARIETAL: Sidra

PROCESS: Natural

FERMENTATION: 48 hours whole cherry

PRICING TRANSPARENCY

FORWARD COFFEE IMPORTS PAID: $55 USD/kg FOB

SORELLINA PAID FORWARD: $136.96 USD/kg

OUR ROASTED COST: $149.85 USD/kg

About Santa Gertrudis from Jose Eguiguren

Hacienda Santa Gertrudis is located in the province of Loja, Ecuador, a few kilometers from the Podocarpus National Park and the well-known town of Vilcabamba. The farm's altitude ranges from 1650 masl to more than 2200 masl. The coffee plantation is currently between 1650 masl and 1750 masl (for now).

The farm has been in the family for a long time; my grandfather, Luis Emilio Eguiguren, grew various crops and was the first to introduce coffee in the1950s. My father extended the plantation in the 1990s, but the operation was profitable for only a few more years. They produced commercial coffee then; the stock market fell substantially in 1999. What they were paying the collectors was higher than what they could get by selling the coffee at that market; good thing my father's main job was in the construction business. That was the end of that coffee stage; Santa Gertrudis spent many years without producing coffee.

After many years, during a trip to the United States, I had a filtered sl28 from Kenya that changed my relationship with coffee forever; for the first time, I found fruity and sweet flavors in a cup of coffee. Naturally, this aroused my curiosity; what did it depend on to obtain those flavors? Was it the variety? The origin? Could this quality be replicated in Santa Gertrudis?

There would be no turning back; I decided to follow this passion that had just awakened and undertake the journey to produce world-class coffee.

I began to educate myself on coffee. I started planting coffee at the farm again, searching for high-quality genetic material, and investigating and implementing new processing and drying techniques. 

Currently, we cultivate six coffee varietals; Caturra, Yellow Catuai, Gesha, Sl28, Typica Mejorado, and Sidra; the latter two are of transcendental importance since they have become authentic emblems of Ecuadorian coffee growing. 

This is a story under construction. We are constantly researching to improve the quality of our production. I'm still planting new coffee plants every year; the varieties I'm focused on now are Typica Mejorado and Sidra, and a couple of varieties that came to the farm thanks to friends who brought them: Yirgacheffe HK22 and Eugenoides.

In the near future I want to implement new fermentation and drying technologies.

BREWING RECIPE:

GRINDER CONVERSION: